Notepads in which the individual sheets of the pad have printed material impressed on each sheet have been manufactured by inserting a heavy paper board backing between groups of the printed sheets to form the backing for the notepads. As the printed sheets emerge from the press, they fall into a stack individually sheet-by-sheet. In the above-identified copending application, there is described apparatus for automatically inserting the boards into the stack of printed sheets as the stack is being formed. When the stack of sheets is removed from the press, the stack is already divided at predetermined intervals by the boards. The entire stack is then coated on one side with an adhesive cement. The stack is then divided into individual tablets or notepads by cutting through the cement at each paper board. In the past, this cutting operation has been done manually by inserting the blade of a knife or other cutting instrument between the surface of a board and the adjacent sheet of paper in the stack and then slicing through the adhesive cement to sever the board and associated group of paper sheets from the rest of the stack to form an individual pad or tablet.